Best fictional Scots character

Published:18:36Updated:18:50Tuesday 23 December 2008

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THE BROONS

The Broons are a family from Glebe Street in Dundee originally created and drawn by Dudley D Watkins.

They first appeared on 8 March 1936 and their mix-ups and petty arguments are still seen each week in the Sunday Post. If you miss that, the adventures of Paw, Maw, Granpaw, Hen, Daphne, Joe, Maggie, Horace, the Twins and the Bairn are rounded up in a book published every two years.

GROUNDSKEEPER WILLIE, The Simpsons

The school groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School is thought to be one of the most recognisable Scots in the world.

Voiced by Dan Castellaneta (also the voice of Homer Simpson) he fits the Scottish stereotype to a tee with his fiery red hair and beard as well as his love of everything tartan.

SHREK

Shrek tops the poll as the finest ogre to ever come from this great country. Mike Myers, the man behind the green beast, claims his ancestors hailed from Scotland and reportedly cost Dreamworks $5million by choosing the Scots accent midway through filming, necessitating reams of new animation.

INSPECTOR REBUS

Detective Inspector John Rebus takes on the lead role in Ian Rankin's well known detective novels.

He is a pugnacious, alcohol-soaked policeman, originally from Fife who prefers to spend more time in the Oxford Bar than looking for clues. Played by John Hannah and Ken Stott in the televisual adaptation, Rebus first appeared in 1987's Knots & Crosses and took his bow in last year's Exit Music.

MISS JEAN BRODIE

Miss Jean Brodie is the most famous character by Muriel Spark. Her novella The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was first published in the New Yorker and adapted into a book in 1961. She is a spinster school teacher in a girls' school in Edinburgh and is intent on moulding her charges into the crme de la crme.

Memorably played by Maggie Smith in the film in 1969, the character is thought to be based on Christina Kay, one of Spark's own teachers at James Gillespie's School for Girls in Edinburgh.